


Time to Lift-off

by ried (riiiied)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 01:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9694202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riiiied/pseuds/ried
Summary: Yuri asks Mila to lift him, and Mila's all but pleased to comply.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fortune_Maiden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fortune_Maiden/gifts).



> Mila did say that she'd been practising her lifts and she actually did lift Yuri over her head, so why not. (Also, I just made up a name for another rinkmate of theirs.)

“Eh? You want me to lift you?” Mila blinked in half-disbelief.

Beside her at the rinkside, Yuri was staring firmly at the ground, just like when he brought up the question. “That’s what I said.”

It was rare enough for Yuri to straightforwardly (for his standards, anyway) ask Mila for help. That this was what he asked for was another surprise on top of that. “Wow, am I hearing this right? I think I’ll need you to say it again just to make sure.”

Glaring up at Mila (and she couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t have to look up as much as earlier in the year), Yuri blared back, “You heard me the first time, old hag. Or are you saying after lifting me all those times without asking, you can’t do it anymore now that I’m actually asking you to?”

Mila held back on her widening grin - no use getting Yuri too angry and taking back his request. “All right, all right, of course I still can lift you, don’t underestimate my training. So.” Hands on her hips, Mila turned to face Yuri. “Ready?”

Yuri, now face-to-face with Mila, nodded firmly in response.

“All right.” Checking her balance, Mila widened up the space between her feet to a shoulder’s width. Sliding her hands under Yuri’s armpits, she grabbed onto his sides, looking straight at his eyes as if to ask for confirmation. Taking the silent stare returned as a go signal, she tightened her grip and, with a heave, lifted him up off his feet. “There!”

Yuri’s eyes widened momentarily when the distance between the bottom of his dangling feet and the ground grew, but soon returned back to normal. And that expression turned into a frown just as quickly. “...that’s it?”

Mila exaggerated a frown back. “Eh? I’m lifting you like you just asked, right?” True, it wasn’t one of the more impressive lifts she could do, but it wasn’t like he specified what exactly he had in mind either. “Could it be… that you also want me to rock you left and right while I’m at it? Or bounce you up and down?”

“N-not that! Don’t you dare!” Despite his hurried answer, Yuri thankfully managed to control himself from thrashing around flustered. “It’s just… not what you usually do.”

“Well, you only said ‘lift’, after all. But sure, let’s do a different one,” Mila said, lowering him down. Just as she was about to prepare herself for another lift, a thought occurred to her. “Hey, what do you say if we do it like pair skating lifts?”

“H-huh?” Yuri jerked his upper body back, nearly screaming. “What did you get into your head, you old hag? Actually, can you actually do those things?”

“I told you, I’ve been practising. I won't do any turning or position changes if you're scared, though.” Not that she actually practised to that point, anyway.

“Who actually even let you practise lifts on them, anyway?”

“Liza.” Mila was blessed with special rinkmates, for differing values of special.

“...figures,” Yuri scoffed. After a pause, “Well, if you can guarantee you won’t drop me, then let’s do it. It's going to be just an overhead lift like what you've been doing before, right?”

Mila’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

Yuri rolled his eyes. “Yeah, really, so do it quick before I change my mind.”

“Roger!” Having given a playful salute, Mila clapped her hands once. “So. I’ll need you to squat a bit, then hold onto my wrists when I grab onto your waist, and then we’ll propel up together.”

Yuri cocked his head to the side. “...come again?”

“Guess it’ll be easier to do it step by step. Just come forward and bend your knees a bit.”

Almost uncharacteristic of how he usually acts when with Mila, Yuri did exactly as he was told. “Like this?”

“Yup, yup.” Putting a foot forward and squatting down further than Yuri, Mila proceeded to put her hands on either side of his waist. “Now grab onto my wrists.”

“Done.” Yuri’s hands were on her wrists, grabbing firmly but not painfully so.

“Okay. Then we’ll straighten back up together and I’ll be lifting you up. You got all that?”

“Yeah.” Yuri’s resolute answer almost reminded Mila on how he was like whenever he was training under Lilia, and she briefly pondered what prompted him to be like that with this little stunt they were trying out.

“All right. I’ll count - squat down and grab at one, back up at two. That fine with you?” Earning a nod in response, she moved back into position. “Okay, let’s do this. One, two -”

And then, Yuri was up in the air - not quite overhead, with his hips just slightly above her shoulder level, but clearly higher than before. Craning her head up, Mila’s eyes were met with Yuri’s, breathing as heavily as she was, none of the disappointment from before left in his eyes, and it was enough to give her a smile. Still, she could probably do more than that. “You want to do an overhead one now? Let's do a platter lift.”

Only breathing could be heard from Yuri for a while, whether simply because of needing to catch his breath or from hesitation. “You really sure you won’t drop me?”

“Hey, you’re the one who usually complains about wanting to be put down, and now you’re doubting me?”

“...all right. Do it.”

At that, Mila lowered Yuri back down, putting them in the same starting position. “Same count as before. Don’t let go until I tell you so. Ready?” There was a longer delay before his answer this time, but the same resolution was still there, and Mila was all but ready to answer to that. “Here we go. One, two -”

This time, she straightened her arms all the way up, holding him parallel to the ground. She couldn’t see his face now, but she could feel his grip on her wrists slightly trembling. Steadying herself, she asked him, “Wanna try spreading your hands?”

The grips on her wrists strengthened for a while, before loosening and finally coming undone. Mila slightly regretted not doing this when one of their other rinkmates were there to take pictures (preferably Liza, who knew what kind of bizarre, concentration-breaking speeches about youth Georgi would come up with), because she was sure they must have looked pretty damn cool right there. And alas, she also knew the limits of her arms. “Grab down towards my shoulders, I’ll be putting you down.”

Back on flat ground, adrenaline still running high, the two of them looked down as they caught their breaths, not quite looking at each other. “So,” Mila started, “what did you think of that? Pretty nice, huh?”

“...definitely better than having you lift me out of nowhere with no warning.” Immediately after saying that, however, Yuri’s expression softened into a slight smile. “Still, I can still be lifted, huh… that’s kind of a relief.”

“I told you, I’ve been training. Maybe I even have an alternate career path in this, huh?” When the snarky response that she expected didn’t come, Mila thought back on Yuri’s statement just now. Not “you can still lift me”, but “I can still be lifted”. Maybe it was just the way he often couldn’t straightforwardly praise people, but… Looking back at Yuri, at how she’d previously noticed how she didn’t need to look down to meet his eye level as much as before, it occurred to her: it wasn't so much about whether _she_ was still strong enough to lift him, but whether she was still strong enough to lift _him_ , and she started giggling at the realisation.

“Hey! Why are you suddenly laughing?” Yuri asked with a wince.

Mila ruffled his hair in response, to his protest. “Oh, my dear Yura, feel free to ask me to try and lift you up anytime you want, okay? In fact, I’ll do it once again right now just for you.”

“What are you - wait, let go of me - I didn’t say you can lift me again, you old hag! Put me -”

“Mila! Yuri!”

Mila turned her head around to see Yakov walking towards them, none too pleased. “If you’re serious about wanting to change to pairs, I can change your training regime starting today.”

“Ah, sorry, Yakov,” Mila said as she put Yuri back down.

“If you are, then go and quickly prepare for proper practice,” Yakov continued, muttering under his breath as he turned around.

Heading off to their preparation, Yuri clicked his tongue. “Your fault for doing that last one without even asking.”

“I was just trying to show you my gratitude after you asked so nicely the first time, you know,” Mila said with a wink.

“I don’t need any of - hey!”

Mila had cut off Yuri's words with another round of hair ruffling. “My offer still stands, though. Just ask me if you need any help, okay? I know you might have it tough from here onwards, but I’ll be around, just so you know," she said, skipping ahead of him. Soon, she’d have to reach up to be able to pat his head. And who knows how much she'd still be able to lift him, if any. But even then, she still would want to be there for him, helping out the way she could.


End file.
